Leaders lay it on the line for Stockdale

Liberal Party heavyweights have laid down the gauntlet in a brawl for the party’s federal presidency, sending an uncompromising letter to incumbent
Alan Stockdale
explaining their support for challenger
Peter Reith
, the John Howard-era industrial relations minister.

All four federal vice-presidents have put their name to the letter on the eve of tomorrow’s ballot in Canberra among 114 delegates to the Liberal Federal Council, effectively telling Mr Stockdale to go now and go quietly. But the Stockdale forces insist he will stand his ground.

Signatories include former foreign minister
Alexander Downer
and Melbourne business identity
Tom Harley
along with representatives from Queensland and Western Australia.

In a message of unusual abruptness to a senior colleague, the federal vice-presidents wrote they were “sorry you [Stockdale] decline the opportunity of a less public and more gradual transition’’.

Stockdale forces, including former Liberal Senate leader and right factional powerbroker
Nick Minchin
, will take exception to both the ­content and sentiments of this latest salvo in the rancorous tussle for a position normally decided by con­sensus.

Mr Reith, who conducted an exhaustive inquiry into the conduct of the 2010 election, is running on a platform of greater accountability and openness in the party, including plebiscites in pre-selections to energize the party base.

The Australian Financial Review understands that the numbers are with Reith, but the Stockdale forces are not giving up in a battle that has exposed lingering tensions among Howard-era ministers and divisions within the Victorian branch itself.

Both Reith and Stockdale, treasurer in the Jeff Kennett governments of the 1990s, are Victorians, but this did not prevent Mr Reith challenging despite Mr Stockdale’s desire to serve for an additional year in a job he has held since the defeat of the Howard government in 2007.

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The vice-presidents’ letter takes Mr Stockdale to task on a range of issues, including “governance". The party officials complain about a lax approach to oversight by the federal executive under Mr Stockdale’s leadership.

It notes that the party’s federal finance committee has met only once in three years, and the federal executive only once this year. It says the federal policy committee is virtually moribund.

High on the list of concerns expressed by the Reith forces is the poor state of the party’s federal finances, and what are regarded as inadequate fund-raising efforts. Significantly, former Liberal Party “bagman’’
Ron Walker
circulated a letter this week to senior Liberals supporting Mr Reith.

The aspiring federal president has been directing his campaign from his residence in Melbourne’s The Domain, opposite the Shrine of Remembrance. Mr Walker has his office on the building’s ground floor.

Liberal leader
Tony Abbott
is seeking to remain above the fray, but the Reith forces insist he has been quietly supportive. Mr Stockdale’s supporters, on the other hand, claim Mr Abbott tried to deflect Mr Reith from contesting the federal presidency in the first place. This is denied.

In the background, former prime minister
John Howard
has been lending his support to Mr Reith. A senior Liberal in Canberra told the Financial Review Mr Howard had been calling delegates to council, but this could not be confirmed.